Malaysia: Truly Asia

I would first like to say that Malaysia is an amazing country. It is in the running for favorite country. The people are kind, it is clean, there isn't much poverty, the food is delicious, the sights are beautiful. So I will make this the long version of my trip.

Day one: Start off in Kuala Lumpur. We visit Tembeling road market to check out the knock-off goods scene. T-shirts, bags, shoes, perfume and DVDs. Anything that you may need. I bought 11 DVDs for about $30. We had dinner at a chinese restaurant, the market is located in China town. We were supposed to stay at Pudu Hostel, which Lonely Planet, says is it's top pick. I am not sure who was writing the book but the room was terrible. Tiny, dirty sheets, windows don't close. Very reminiscent of the shelter we stayed at in Thailand after the tsunami. Needless to say, we were out of there, and found a nice hotel for not too much more money.

Day two: We headed to Taman Negara or one of the oldest rainforests in the world. It took about 5 hours to get to the jetty and after that a relaxing 3 hour ride up the river to Kuala Tahan, or the village next to Taman Negara. The boat ride was in a small wooden boat, just as I was hoping and we saw many monkeys on the way there. We arrived and were unloaded in the floating restaurant and taken to our chalets. They were quite nice considering they were in the jungle. That evening we took a night hike and saw many creatures including a poisonous snake, scorpions, spiders, loris, and stick bugs dancing on the trees. It was creepy but fun. We were sharing a chalet with 2 Canadian girls called Brittany and Allison who turned out to be quite funny.

Day three: The next day we got up and went for a hike in the jungle. Our first stop was the canopy walkway up in the trees. I thought it would be a short little bridge but it we ended up walking amongst the branches for at least a half an hour. It was really beautiful and we got great views of the surrounding jungle. Trees in the jungle are much taller than trees at home, so being up that high was great. After that we did a rather strenous hike to the top of a peak. Sweat dripping off our bodies we finally made it to the top. It was a nice view, but bugs and bees were disturbing us so we decided to make our decent down. We went back the long, and leech filled way. After a slight detour we realized we were right on track. After hiking for 3 hours we decided to check our shoes to see if leeches latched on. I had about 5 leeches in my shoes, but luckily they hadn't started sucking my blood yet. Christine wasn't as lucky, she had sprung a leak on each of her ankles. After a much deserved shower we had an early bird dinner at one of the restaurants and hung out with a few locals and travellers that night.

Day four: We got up early and hopped on the bus that would eventually take us to the jetty for Pulua Perhentian Islands. This journey took about 5 hours as well, but luckily we met a nice guy called Chris to help us pass the time in the bus. We hopped on the fast boat and Christine and I decided to stay on Perhentian Besar, the larger yet quieter of the two islands. Most backpackers stay on Kecil or Long Beach. After seeing Phuket Thailand we decided on the quieter of the two. It was beautiful and quaint. Our chalet was right on the beach. We actually stayed at the 5 star resort for only $30 a night! Can't beat that. We had a nice dinner- sea food was amazing and called it a night. People on Besar don't seem to stay up past 10 or 11 at night! Needless to say, this wasn't a partying holiday.

Day five: We hung out in the morning and caught the 2:00 boat to go snorkling around Besar. The island has the most beautiful coral reefs. We spotted reef sharks, all kinds of tropical fish-including Nemo, and sea turtles (which has turned into my new fav animal). There is a good reason that a movie was made about clown fish. They are the most curious fish I have met. The live in the anemone and when you swim down to see them they come out and check you out, and as soon as you leave they go right back in their home. Snorkling was by far the high light of the trip. That night we hung out with the workers on the island. Despite the fact that they were Muslims, they threw back a few whiskey and cokes. They were funny and friendly guys. Quite different to the Japanese.

Day six: We rented a kayak and paddled across to check out Long Beach. It isn't at all like Phuket. Smaller, nicer, quieter, but you can still tell it is the backpackers haunt. Many young people out tanning, versus all the old people and couples on our island. We spent the day swimming and snorkling and getting sunburnt. We were about to get ready to paddle home when we ran into Kenny and Ki (two Malay guys we met the night before) so we had a drink with them and then ran into Chris and a few other travelers we met in the jungle. So we made plans to meet up the next day and paddled our exhausted bodies back to Coral View.

Day seven: Like a good girl I wore a shirt all day due to bad sunburnt. My mom would be proud. I spend the day in the shade and when I went in the water to snorkle I even wore a T-shirt. How pathetic. Later on that day we took a water taxi (there are no cars on these islands) back to Long Beach to meet up with Chris, Tom and Jasmine. We swam for a bit then got cleaned up for dinner. We met up with a few other travellers and went to a bar as well. We were all kind of tired so we didn't get too crazy. Just a few friendly beers. 12:00 was coming around and we decided we needed to work out a water taxi to get home. I talked to a man and he said there was no way he could get us home. All his drivers were drinking. He offered us hammocks above his bar. No way, we had already paid to stay at our hotel. So I went searching for someone to take us back. Luckily we were able to get a taxi back.

Day eight: After a quick snorkle in the morning we got a boat to Kota Bharu, or the town with an airport to get back to Kuala Lumpur. We sort of miscalculated time and ended up spending ages there. There was a food market and a craft market. Other than that we went cafe hopping. 3 restaurants in about 5 hours. We also checked out the local super market and dept store. On this day I looked down at my feet. They were swollen and red and looked terrible. It must have been from the bug bites and sunburn. After arriving back to Japan I counted my bug bites and discovered that I had 113 from my knees to my toes alone. That's a lot of poison in a small area! So we finally arrived in KL at about 1:30. This is when the only glitch of the trip arose. The taxi driver charged us an arm and a leg for a really short journey. I was so off that he scammed us that I left my backpack in the cab. So goodbye to my gortex jacket, souveniers and notebook with a lot of important stuff written in it. It could have been a lot worse though.

Day nine: Our last day spend in KL. We woke up and went to the Chinese market to pick up some DVDs. Then we headed to Little India for a curry. It was amazing. We literally crossed the road and we were surrounded by Indians. Where before we were surrounded by Muslim Malays. Very odd. So we had a nice curry buffet, Chris had a drink called 'Kickapoo Joy Juice' and set off for the craft market. We got some nice batik fabric and other malay items. Then we went to the Islamic Arts Museum which was amazing and I really recommend. It is gorgeous, very interesting and full of artifacts. After that Chris was set on going to the movies so we headed to Mid Valley Megamall, the largest mall in SE Asia and saw Yours, Mine and Ours. I was getting nervous because we were running low on funds and time. But luckily we made it to the airport in time for our 1:00am flight.

So that is the vacation. If you want to see pics let me know and I will email you some.